MALIBU, Calif. — Wrapping up the fastest week of college track's regular season, freshman Elijah Gentry of the Pepperdine track team broke the program's 3000-meter steeplechase record at Azusa Pacific University's Bryan Clay Invitational.
Kicking off the three-day meet, Gentry became the fastest 3,000-meter steeplechase runner in Pepperdine's modern era with his record-breaking time of 9:07.84 on Wednesday afternoon. After that, the Waves competed in all three days of the Bryan Clay Invitational — the nation's biggest and fastest collegiate track meet — plus sent a separate squad to La Verne's Leopard Invitational on Thursday and Friday. All told, the team ran 11 new top-10 times this week.
Gentry, who came into Pepperdine as an accomplished high school steeplechase runner, broke one of the program's oldest distance running records in his third collegiate steeplechase race. Running in his most competitive college heat to date, the freshman started the seven-and-a-half-lap race with his fastest split of the afternoon, then finished eighth in his heat of 16 runners. His time of 9:07.84 is nearly three seconds faster than Chris Ogle's previous record of 9:10.33, which has stood since 2008, or when Gentry was two years old.
The Waves have broken nine school records in head coach Lauren Floris' fourth year coaching her alma mater.
THE RUNDOWN
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On Thursday morning at the Bryan Clay Invitational, sophomore Dominic Silhol improved his 5,000-meter run time to 14:48.79, which ranks 10th in program history. He placed 11th in his heat of 30 runners.
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In the women's 5,000-meter run on Thursday morning, senior Eden Mittelsdorf moved up to seventh on the program's top-10 leaderboard with her time of 17:50.00.
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At the Leopard Invitational, Ava Maly won the 200-meter dash with a collegiate-best time of 25.08 seconds, which ranks fourth in program history. The sophomore PRed with a time of 25.17 seconds in the prelims.
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Junior Jenna Parsio and freshman Tatiana Potter also made the finals in the 200-meter dash at the meet; they placed fourth and fifth, respectively.
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Maly also made the finals in the 100-meter dash with a collegiate personal-best time of 12.36 seconds, which is the sixth-fastest time in program history. Like she did in the 200-meter dash, Maly ran a personal best in the prelims of the 100 meters.
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On the men's side, Jordan McCray ran the third-fastest 100-meter dash time with a time of 11.12 seconds.
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Lauren Rocco lowered her 100-meter high hurdles personal best twice: first with a time of 15.94 seconds in the prelims and then with a 15.75-second time in the finals that moved her up to seventh in program history. She placed sixth overall.
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At the same meet, Rocco placed third overall and moved up to fourth all-time in the 400-meter hurdles with her time of 1:04.33.
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Later on Friday at the Bryan Clay Invitational, senior Maddy Ortman moved up to third in the 400-meter hurdles top-10 rankings with her time of 1:03.88.
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Also at Bryan Clay, the Pepperdine 4x400-meter relay team of Isabella Reyes, Brittany Rivas, Lexi Thomas and Maddy Ortman finished less than a second off the school record with a time of 3:52.48. Despite mixing up the relay order, the team ran 1.49 seconds faster than its previous season-best time.
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Concluding the Bryan Clay Invitational, sophomore Gordy Nilsen ran a new personal-best time in the 1,500 meters. His time of 3:55.36 ranks fifth in program history.
UP NEXT: The Waves have one more meet with the full squad: The Oxy Invitational on May 3. All schedule updates can be found on the track and field team's schedule page on pepperdinewaves.com.
